11.23.2020

Scripture on Lust and Sexual Temptation

Genesis 3:6

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.


Exodus 20:14, 17

You shall not commit adultery....  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife...


Job 31:1

I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?


Proverbs 6:23-29

Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattering tongue of a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, Nor let her allure you with her eyelids. For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.  Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?  So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.


Matthew 5:28

Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.


Romans 13:13-14

Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.


1 Corinthians 6:13-20

Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.


Galatians 5:16-19

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness...


Ephesians 2:3

We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.


Colossians 3:5-7

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.


1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.


2 Timothy 2:22

Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 


Titus 2:11-12

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age...


1 Peter 1:14-16

... not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”


1 Peter 2:11

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul


1 John 2:16

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

11.22.2020

Proverbs on Women and Lust

11 Discretion will guard you…..

16 To deliver you from the strange woman,
From the adulteress who flatters with her words;
17 That leaves the companion of her youth
And forgets the covenant of her God;
18 For her house sinks down to death
And her tracks lead to the dead;
19 None who go to her return again,
Nor do they reach the paths of life.

-          Proverbs 2:11,16-19

 

For the lips of an adulteress drip honey
And smoother than oil is her speech;
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death,
Her steps take hold of Sheol.
She does not ponder the path of life;
Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

Now then, my sons, listen to me
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Keep your way far from her
And do not go near the door of her house,
Or you will give your vigor to others
And your years to the cruel one;
10 And strangers will be filled with your strength
And your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;
11 And you groan at your final end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
12 And you say, “How I have hated instruction!
And my heart spurned reproof!
13 “I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
14 “I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern
And fresh water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be yours alone
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

-          Proverbs 5:3-20

 

23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light;
And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
24 To keep you from the evil woman,
From the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.
26 For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread,
And an adulteress hunts for the precious life.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom
And his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can a man walk on hot coals
And his feet not be scorched?
29 So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals
To satisfy himself when he is hungry;
31 But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold;
He must give all the substance of his house.
32 The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense;
He who would destroy himself does it.
33 Wounds and disgrace he will find,
And his reproach will not be blotted out.
34 For jealousy enrages a man,
And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not accept any ransom,
Nor will he be satisfied though you give many gifts.

-          Proverbs 6:23-35

 

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your intimate friend;
That they may keep you from an adulteress,
From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
And I saw among the naive,
And discerned among the youths
A young man lacking sense,
Passing through the street near her corner;
And he takes the way to her house,
In the twilight, in the evening,
In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10 And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
11 She is boisterous and rebellious,
Her feet do not remain at home;
12 She is now in the streets, now in the squares,
And lurks by every corner.
13 So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a brazen face she says to him:
14 “I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.
15 “Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.
16 “I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt.
17 “I have sprinkled my bed
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 “Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
19 “For my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;
20 He has taken a bag of money with him,
At the full moon he will come home.”
21 With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
22 Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
23 Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.

24 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
And pay attention to the words of my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,
Do not stray into her paths.
26 For many are the victims she has cast down,
And numerous are all her slain.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
Descending to the chambers of death.

-          Proverbs 7:4-27

 

13 The woman of folly is boisterous,
She is naive and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the doorway of her house,
On a seat by the high places of the city,
15 Calling to those who pass by,
Who are making their paths straight:
16 “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,”
And to him who lacks understanding she says,
17 “Stolen water is sweet;
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

-          Proverbs 9:13-18

 

16 A gracious woman attains honor

-          Proverbs 11:16

 

22 As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout
So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

-          Proverbs 11:22

 

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,
But she who shames him is like rottenness in his bones.

-          Proverbs 12:4

 

The wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

-          Proverbs 14:1

 

22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing
And obtains favor from the Lord.

-          Proverbs 18:22

 

13 A foolish son is destruction to his father,
And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.

14 House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers,
But a prudent wife is from the Lord.

-          Proverbs 19:13-14

 

It is better to live in a corner of a roof
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

-          Proverbs 21:9 (repeated below in Proverbs 25:24, see also 27:15)

 

19 It is better to live in a desert land
Than with a contentious and vexing woman.

-          Proverbs 21:19

 

14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit;
He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it.

-          Proverbs 22:14

 

27 For a harlot is a deep pit
And an adulterous woman is a narrow well.
28 Surely she lurks as a robber,
And increases the faithless among men.

-          Proverbs 23:27-28

 

24 It is better to live in a corner of the roof
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

-          Proverbs 25:24 (repeated above in Proverbs 21:9, see also 27:15)

 

15 A constant dripping on a day of steady rain
And a contentious woman are alike;
16 He who would restrain her restrains the wind,
And grasps oil with his right hand.

-          Proverbs 27:15-16

 

A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
But he who keeps company with harlots wastes his wealth.

-          Proverbs 29:3

 

15 The leech has two daughters,
“Give,” “Give.”
There are three things that will not be satisfied,
Four that will not say, “Enough”:
16 Sheol, and the barren womb,
Earth that is never satisfied with water,
And fire that never says, “Enough.”

-          Proverbs 30:15-16

 

18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me,
Four which I do not understand:
19 The way of an eagle in the sky,
The way of a serpent on a rock,
The way of a ship in the middle of the sea,
And the way of a man with a maid.

20 This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth,
And says, “I have done no wrong.”

-          Proverbs 30:18-20

 

Do not give your strength to women,
Or your ways to that which destroys kings.

-          Proverbs 31:3

 

10 An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13 She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.
14 She is like merchant ships;
She brings her food from afar.
15 She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
18 She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hands grasp the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
26 She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29 “Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.

-          Proverbs 31:10-31

11.21.2020

Encouragement for Pastors

 

Encouragement for Today's Pastors: Help from the PuritansEncouragement for Today's Pastors: Help from the Puritans by Joel R. Beeke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not so much encouragement, as just a hodgepodge of the Puritans’ views on theological topics related to the ministry. The introduction and epilogue were relevant and encouraging. Much of the rest was either convicting or at least relevant to a pastor’s calling. If you’ve worked through 2/3 of your list of books addressing the pastor’s calling, it is time for this one.

I do commend Joel Beeke’s ministry to you, though. A lot of good stuff there. Puritan Theology, co-authored with Mark Jones, is especially good for the theologian.


View all my reviews

11.16.2020

A Response to Our Helicopter-Governing of Covid

 My state governor’s draconian restrictions announced last night prompt me to write today.

 

She has forbidden private families from Thanksgiving gatherings with more than 2 households, on penalty of $200 and $1000 fines and possible imprisonment.  No indoor gatherings AT ALL of more than 2 families, or 10 people.  Shut down high school sports and in-person school.  Shuttered restaurants and entertainment venues entirely.  All for 3 weeks, and it’ll likely be extended beyond that.  But the Lions and college sports can play.  Daycares will remain open.  Religious services are exempt from penalties.  Throughout the press conference, she danced between urging and persuasion, and the language of these as “orders” and “laws.”

 

Feel free to correct any factual errors in this summary.  I’m a bit strong in my wording below, but also welcome your feedback.

 

My thoughts:

1.      It is a clear overreach on the part of the civil government to forbid family gatherings.  Freedom of assembly is a specific first amendment right in our Constitution.  The proper word for this is authoritarianism and tyranny, regardless of the legitimacy of the public health threat.  This is the epitome of a nanny state in which we are all wards, not free citizens.  I would be fine with medical advisories, even if given from their view of the virus, not mine (see #2).  But talk to us like we are adults and free citizens, not minors who need to be “allowed” some things, and “closed” to others.  Issue information and statistics objectively, not selectively to fit your narrative (see 2.a. next).  That is your job.  Instead, you seem to be learning from the national media to curate and present the facts in a way that fits only your agenda.  When such overreach is clear, a Christian is not bound by Romans 13, to obey whatever orders are given.  Rather, civil disobedience (or disregarding orders, or appealing to a lower magistrate) is a way for citizens to point our government, which is “of the people,” to their properly limited authority.

 

2.     There are at least two differing views of the virus, BOTH supported by science

a.       First is the one you hear in the news every day, and what my governor is acting on.  It says each new case, each new “outbreak” (defined as a handful of cases!) is a preventable travesty.  If only we were all wearing masks, 200,000 people wouldn’t have died!  200,000 more won’t die!  Don’t expose yourself to Covid, or you’re doomed!

b.      The other view says each Covid case is a largely necessary and mostly UN-preventable necessity to building herd immunity to Covid.  Even after we have a vaccine, herd immunity, a biological fact of life, will still be the goal to stem Covid's effects on us.  Key fact: testing the population for antibodies has shown that 50 times more people have had Covid (without even knowing it) than there are confirmed cases. (Source: Imprimis article by Stanford Professor of Medicine).  This means the risk of Covid hospitalizing, scarring, or killing you is 50 times lower than we think.  Google the Great Barrington Declaration for more.  The media reports every bizarre and rare case of child abuse that happens, so now parents don’t dare let their children out of their sight.  Child trafficking is real, but helicopter parenting isn't the answer.  The same is happening with Covid.  It is a real threat, but helicopter governing isn't a good response.  We think Covid is everywhere and always lethal/dangerous, when actually, many of the people you live and work with have already had it, and it's usually innocuous.  The objective stats and numbers rank the danger of Covid to us nowhere near a bubonic plague to flee, or to cancel Christmas or church over.

c.      The first view is psychologically compelling, because we all WANT desperately to believe that we can by our actions manage and control this virus.  So we latch on to things like masks, vaccines, and other mitigation.  Not because of the science, but because we want to believe we can stop the spread by our choices.  It’s like a cancer patient changing his diet to fight cancer.  Not gonna help much.  We ought not radically alter our society to be just a tiny bit safer.  Let the vulnerable and their relatives make that decision, don’t foist it on the whole society.

d.      Most/all of the news you hear only gives you the first view (a. above), assumes it, and presses it on you every day.  They imply you must be a fringe, selfish psychopath to resist restrictions.  Have you simply assumed they must be right, and not considered that the second view may be true?  Do you realize they are pressuring us to comply like repressive Communist governments want their people to behave?

e.       A majority of our state legislature holds the second view, yet the governor did not take it into account AT ALL in setting her policy.

f.        This is an easy win for those on the left seeking to expand the role of government.  Climate change has been a harder presenting cause, to achieve an expansion of government’s role and spending.  But Covid has made it much easier to assert and assume government control of everyday life.  People are used to it now, and meekly comply like sheeple, when they should be outraged at the tyranny.  Businesses will follow along.  Small business doesn’t have the resources to resist and big corporations have been overtaken by woke culture.  We have become a fascist society without realizing it (government controlling business).  All while rejecting the president who we CALLED a fascist, but who resisted these policies.

 

3.      What we know about Covid

a.       I’ve heard from some of you, the tragic first-hand accounts in hospitals, the stories of severe after-effects from COVID.  I believe them, and it’s nothing to sneeze at, pun intended.  But other anecdotes reveal many confirmed cases with NO symptoms and a full and complete recovery.  Our denomination’s leader and 2 family members got Covid, had mild symptoms, and are recovering.  At our small church we have worshiped in person for 6 months now without masks, and have no Covid cases yet.  When we get one, I’m not going to freak out.

b.      Tesla's Elon Musk recently tested the test by testing himself 4 times in one day – the result was 2 positive and 2 negative, showing the uncertainty of the test.  “Confirmed case” is an oxymoron.

c.       Politicians that want more restrictions are talking like hospitals are already overrun again.  They are not.  They are fuller than they were a month ago, yes.  But hospital stays are shorter.  Staff have been around the block once, and know better what to do.  We don't need the same draconian shutdowns to prevent the health system being over-capacity.

d.      Covid can be more or less lethal/damaging than the flu, depending on what age you are.  Of course, we should be more careful to not spread germs and practice better hygiene.  But to shut down social life for this is like refusing to fly because some planes crash.  No, not even that.  It’s like outlawing flying for everyone, because some planes crash.

 

4.      Covid’s unpredictability is what scares us.  It can scare doctors and scientists most of all, who crave understanding and control of their environment.  So they are the most willing to propose radical steps to get control.  (Witness Dr. Fauci.)  Politicians lack the courage to set policy that accounts for other factors.  I do see my governor accounting for economic factors now, unlike in March, in keeping daycares and some businesses open.  That’s a good step.  But to cancel family life at the holidays instead is cruel and disproportionate.  

Not because I’m selfish and want my holiday parties, and don't care if I give people Covid unknowingly.  No, I believe I understand the epidemiology rationale behind canceling, and I reject it.  Either way, families should have the freedom to decide whether to take that risk or not.

11.13.2020

Feed Your Soul, Not Your Flesh

 An old friend passed on these Youtube videos (try 32:00 mark) of a jazz piano player doing improvisations on traditional hymns.  Makes great background music that fed my soul.  It may not be your thing, but my exhortation to you this week would be this:


Identify things that restore your soul.  Pursue them.

Psalm 23 says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul."

Green pastures.  Still waters.  These are things you NEED, though you may not always feel it.  I'm not talking about the obvious things that God calls all Christians to: reading the Bible, going to church, prayer, etc.  Of course, do these.  I mean things specific to you that reset you in good ways before the Lord.

I'd warn of two traps when you seek out things to restore your soul.  One is things you're nostalgic for.  I love the sound of a good piano, and these videos feed that.  But the sound is not what restores my soul - that just meets my natural taste.  It's the lingering meditation on lyrics like "Amazing Grace" that feeds me.  Be careful when the routine bedtime story with the kids gives you the good-feels in itself without actually feeding your soul in the Lord Jesus.

I believe the Christmas season will tempt many this year to cling to nostalgia and sentimentalism for comfort, amidst all the COVID stress.  Resist this.  Your comfort is that you are not your own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.  Your comfort is not in decorations or a tree or presents, or a holiday, though we ought to celebrate our Lord's Incarnation.  Your comfort is not in turning the calendar and being done with 2020.  It is in Christ.

The second trap is things you THINK you need, but you don't.  Things you have come to crave or desire.

Sugar
Infinite Facebook feeds
Alcohol
Up to date news on elections
Caffeine
That Netflix show
Chocolate
That political commentary that always agrees with you

These things provide a false comfort - they feel like they are feeding you, as they tell you what you want to hear, as they make your body feel good.  Fasts from these things will help direct your soul to the Lord, who you REALLY need.

What are you pursuing right now?  Do you know what will help your soul just now?

11.11.2020

On Honoring Veterans

 I decided last minute to attend my small town's Veteran's Day service at 11:00a.m. today, and I'm glad I did.

After the 21-gun salute and taps, the lowering and raising of the flag, and the pledge of allegiance, about 100 people leaned in on a breezy and brisk overcast day to hear the mayor speak of our debt of gratitude to all who have served in our armed forces.  A state senator and newly re-elected U.S. Congresswoman also spoke.  A couple newly elected officials were also there - I met my new state representative.

These are the kind of social events that knit us together, when politics can tear us apart.  Nothing can make the politicians tone it down and talk nicely like a contingent of seasoned veterans standing before them under a flag.

It also struck me that we elect mayors and representatives not only to speak FOR us, but to speak TO us.  Who can best articulate our values and beliefs about how the world is?  Tell us what is true, then go to Lansing and Washington and enact it into law.


To all who have served our country in uniform, thank you.  Having pastored some of you, I know it comes with its own frustrations and temptations.  But you follow in a long and honored heritage of those working and fighting bravely for a country worth working, fighting and dying for.

Faith // America Forgetting God // Bible's Pro-Life Case

 Paul Tripp writes helpfully about FAITH.


Doug Wilson has a really good article on the state of our nation, and the Christians within it.

I wasn't sure about the second-to-last section, conflating pluralism with polytheism.  There's something off, there.  But there is so much back-bone-strengthening in here, it's worth the extra rhetoric...

Examples:

"The great problem with American Christians is that they want Jesus to save America’s bacon, but they want to arrange it so that America doesn’t have to say His name."

"We need a new set of leaders — leaders who are not embarrassed by the Word of God, and who are not embarrassed by other leaders who are not embarrassed by the Word of God. You’d be surprised."



Wayne Grudem points us where to go in Scripture to make the pro-life argument.



From the Gospel Coalition:
"We wake up every day with a passive and distractible posture, opening our smartphones for no reason and letting our social feeds dictate where the energies of our hearts, minds, and words are funneled. Not only can this lead us in all sorts of foolish and unhelpful directions (spending hours engaged in Twitter battles when we could be doing any number of more productive things), but it also distracts us from the Christian mission that should animate us more powerfully than the various social media kerfuffles and breaking news headlines that quickly come and go."

11.09.2020

Stolen Election?

Conservatives are quick to cry foul on the election just now.

Here are two examples that give me pause.

1. I was strongly suspicious when the school board candidate I did NOT want elected, appeared at the top of my ballot, though the last name started with Z.  I thought they always went alphabetical, and that the candidate had rigged it so his name was on top to get the ignorant vote.

An election official friend corrected me.  Every few ballots are printed in a different order so no candidate gets that top-name bias.  Huh.


2. I heard breathless reports of vans bringing ballots to a counting location in Detroit at 3 in the morning.  Proof of fraud, right?  Far from it.  Urban voting centers are slower to get totals due to higher volume, perhaps they send ballots elsewhere to be counted, when more rural areas count on site, etc.  I'm not sure of all the details of the process everywhere, so will be SLOW to accuse and assume fraud is happening, just because my guy is losing.


Now, I'd LOVE it if recounts and Trump's litigation resulted in a count that favored him.  I think every legal means should be exhausted.  But the numbers for it just aren't adding up right now.

If you believe every assertion of fraud and election stealing in your social media feed, I'd urge you to reconsider how you decide what is true.

If Fox and the Wall Street Journal are now part of the liberal mainstream media, just because they won't fight for Trump, you have crossed a line that I cannot cross.

11.02.2020

A Belated Reformation Day Salute to Guido de Bres


Five years after Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenburg door, a baby boy was born in Belgium, named Guido or Guy de Bres.  Guido’s father was a blauschilder, a painter of blue, just before the time when Holland's Delftware became famous.  Guido grew up in a devout Roman Catholic family, but Gutenberg’s printing press was churning out the writings of Luther and Calvin and others, and it had its effect.  Guido became evangelical in college around 20 years old, which we rightly celebrate.  But it made him a marked man.

 

Spain dominated the lowlands of Belgium and Holland in those days, and they actively suppressed Anabaptists and Reformers and Lutherans.  We’ve heard of the Spanish Inquisition.  de Bres fled to England, like many Protestants on the continent were doing.  There he met many leading reformers: a Jewish convert to the Reformation who was THE world expert in the Hebrew language.  A Polish Baptist who wrote the London Confession.  Most important, Calvin’s right-hand man, Theodore Beza.  De Bres found his way to Geneva, imbibing closely Calvin’s thought and his pastoral actions.  As with most refugees from their native land, Guy de Bres longed to return home and spread Reformation truth to his own people.  Calvin and other Genevans encouraged him to do so, but to count the cost first.  Don't forget the Spanish Inquisition!  12,000 Protestants in the lowlands were martyred in those days for their faith.

But Guido went home.

 

At 37 years old, de Bres was an undercover preacher and pastor.  He would meet with the church from house to house under the guise of dinner parties, much like this one, where he would lead a worship service and celebrate communion.  He would disguise himself as a beggar in the streets, so the soldiers wouldn’t question and arrest him as a Protestant agitator.  He would preach in the open fields, with scouts on the lookout for Spanish soldiers.

 

Inspired by his Polish friend who wrote the London Confession, following the footsteps of Calvin, who wrote catechisms and his Institutes, Guy wrote his own confession, before he was 40 years old.  He wrote because he didn’t like Spain’s propaganda.  They said all these Protesting protestants are the same – they are rebels and fanatics.  They won’t follow the church and they want to set up their own state.  In part they were right – the Anabaptists WERE extremists who wanted to set up their own communes apart from civil authority – many of them were rabid charismatics who followed their own feelings of the Spirit more than the Word of God.  Guido de Bres wanted to tell the world, especially Spain, that there were reasonable Reformers, willing to submit to the crown, who simply wanted to follow the Word of God as they read it.  So he wrote the Belgic Confession.

 

The same year he wrote it, on this very day, November 1, he went to Lansing, I mean, the seat of government in his state.  Where the Democrat, I mean, the Spanish crown’s governor lived and ruled.  And in the cover of darkness, he took a copy of his confession and threw it over the castle wall.  He wanted the Spanish government to read of his faithfulness to God and His Word, and to stop persecuting his people.

 

Spain did not listen.

 

Their Standard Operating Procedure was to attack and lay siege to a city with an "outbreak of cases" of the Reformation – it was a plague in their minds.  And in 1567 they did just that, and caught Guy in their nets.  


They arrested him.  


He wrote to his wife and children, urging them to trust that God was sovereign over such a trial, as much as any other time.  He second-guessed himself a bit: “if we hadn’t traveled together openly in the street as pastors those few times, maybe they wouldn’t have arrested us!”  But He turned to the Lord, and trusted God with his life: “This has come to pass from Your hand.”

 

He was hanged the same year - 1567 - and he was 45 years old.  I’m a Reformed pastor, aged 44.  I imagine myself as Pastor Guido.  The Michigan state police have me imprisoned, questioned, and hanged for our Protestant/Christian faith.  


In spite of the obvious hostility of the secular left to the conservative, traditional Christian faith and life like a woman such as Amy Coney Barrett, such as many of my readers - when you consider history, we have it REALLY good in our country.

 

Thanksgiving is coming.  Thank God for courageous martyrdom like Guido DeBres’.  Thank God for religious liberty in our land that keeps us free from such a threat to our very lives.  Most of all, thank God for the truth of His Word, and faithful men who summarized that truth in confessions like this Belgic Confession.  Read them.  Cherish them.  Learn from them.

  

A Youtube cartoon on de Bres – 3 minutes – great for kids!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktN8zq4WV_0